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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22644943">Renegade</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/nickelkeep/pseuds/nickelkeep'>nickelkeep</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Nickel's Femslash February 2020 [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Mass Effect Trilogy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Earthborn (Mass Effect), F/F, Femslash, Femslash February, Femslash February 2020, Paragon Shepard (Mass Effect), Pre-Femslash, Renegade Shepard (Mass Effect), Ruthless (Mass Effect), changing for the better</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 12:40:13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>324</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22644943</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/nickelkeep/pseuds/nickelkeep</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Shepard tries to prove it's nurture over nature.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Female Shepard/Tali'Zorah nar Rayya</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Nickel's Femslash February 2020 [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1621597</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>21</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Renegade</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for Day 9 of Femslash February, Renegade<br/>...<br/>You can find me on <a href="https://nickelkeep.tumblr.com/">Tumblr</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/nickelwrites">Twitter</a>.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Shepard did not like to think of herself as a Renegade. </p><p>She was born on Earth, sure. Shepard’s mom had her as a teen and abandoned her almost immediately. Shepard was in and out of orphanages, before finally running away completely at fourteen. She was considered trouble and continually having run-ins with the law as a young child, as a teenager, and as a young woman. But life on Earth was hard. That didn’t make her a Renegade.</p><p>When sent to Torfan, Shepard didn’t have a choice. The Batarians had raided Elysium two years earlier, and the Alliance wanted revenge. Major Kyle had been the one to tell her to send her troops in for slaughter. Major Kyle gave her the order, and she followed it to the T. It’s what good soldiers did. Shepard lost three-quarters of her men, and in rage at their loss, Shepard slaughtered all the Batarians in sight. Reports had her laughing as she ripped Batarians limb from limb with her biotics, but the truth was she was sobbing. Crying should have proved she wasn’t a Renegade.</p><p>Shepard did everything she could to prove she wasn’t the ruthless, cold-hearted bitch they made her out to be. She saved as many people as she could. She tried to be diplomatic. Shepard became a god-damned Girl Scout. But those who knew her reputation, who knew her past, who knew what she had done? They called her actions a farce.</p><p>Except for Tali.</p><p>Sweet, kind Tali’Zorah nar Rayya. Twenty-two and on her pilgrimage when her world was turned upside down by Saren and Benezia. The sweet Quarian didn’t care about Shepard’s past. Tali saw through Shepard’s walls and tore them down. She reminded Shepard that it wasn’t her past that defined her, but the future that she was in control of.</p><p>Tali was the reason Shepard wasn’t a Renegade. Shepard was a Paragon in the eyes of the Quarian who loved her. </p>
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